Best Buy has confirmed that its long-anticipated “Blue Sky Video by Best Buy” service will officially launch within the next few weeks. Best Buy announced several months ago that it would be launching a digital media store powered by Roxio CinemaNow technology.
The “Blue Sky” store will offer new release rentals from $3.99 and purchases from $19.99. Members of Best Buy’s Reward Zone loyalty program will also receive a free monthly download.
Best Buy spokesperson Susan Busch-Nehring said that the company has been testing digital store concepts at select locations for several months. Said Busch-Nehring:
“The tests are in place to bring more experiential vignettes into our stores so customers can experience the digitally connected world,”
Ralph Schackart, an analyst with William Blair & Co., said that Blue Sky and its free downloads won’t increase the digital download market “overnight” but will propel growth in the long run. Said Schackart:
“We expect these experiments to include initially free digital rentals to spur consumer adoption of digital, as well as potentially higher priced rentals before the DVD release or even late in the theatrical run,”
Will the clout of the Best Buy brand and the convenience of the service that will be built into electronic devices make “Blue Sky” a success? Leave your opinion in the comments.
(via Home Media Magazine)
this has nothing to do with this post, but i just found out that there is a website competing with this one for blockbuster express called inside blockbuster express! isn’t that pathetic?! http://insideblockbusterexpress.com/
Thanks for the info, some more free movies.
What’s “pathetic” about it? It gives free codes for Blockbuster Express rentals so what’s the big deal? I mean….that’s a GOOD thing right? I’ve been using it for about 3 months now and have gotten a boatload of free movies from them. Afterall, Redbox has been pretty stingy with their free codes lately in case you haven’t noticed!
Glad you are getting some good info (the codes) from the site. I just posted up a bunch of new ones about an hour ago. Get ya some more free movies!
That is pretty funny. Looks like it was designed with the same template too.
Actually I designed my own template for InsideBlockbusterExpress. Its just that we are both using WordPress so they have some similar “feel”.
its because michael lantz runs both sites hes not loyal to redbox only money
yes michael runs both sites. he just doesn’t ever admit it. this site is not even redbox approved. he just piggybacks their name for coin.
really?
More power to you Michael if you run both sites! However, my suggestion then is why don’t you combine BOTH sites into one all powerful site like Politico.com became/did for the red/blue…repub/dems issues of politics. Politico.com addresses all things politics–dems/repubs/libs/tea party,etc.—everything and anything politics but with a foundation of dem/repubs. Politico.com became much more interesting/news worthy when they started having posts that were written by either a pro dem or pro repub, and then common bloggers battle it out with their comments on the post depending on their political alliance/opinions. There are too many sites on the web as it is…too time consuming surfing all over the web as it is….So I say combine both insideredbox and insidebbexpress into one all powerful site! Do one thing and do it well!..and don’t make me search all over the web for both redbox and bbexpress info now that they’re putting bbexpress kiosks along with the existing redbox kiosks in my area!
Michael does not run the other site. Its this guy named Steve. Hey wait, that’s me! ;-).
I happened to have some relationships that helped get me some codes and info on what is now called Blockbuster Express. I was a frequent lurker and occasional poster here and took the same concept and started up a site to provide news and codes for Blockbuster Express. It was a niche that needed to be filled so I did.
And like Micheal and Redbox, I’ve got no official status with Blockbuster Express. Actually, I’ve received a few calls from the folks at NCR (which is who actually is using the name Blockbuster Express) expressing some angst about the whole thing. I even took a post down because I was revealing info that they felt might jeopardize a business relationship with a potential partner. So as we have built a relationship, they realize that I’m helping promote their brand and their kiosks and we are happily at arm’s length now. But I’m certainly not “official” in any way though! But we do play nice.
I hope what I’m doing isn’t “pathetic” but is instead providing some useful info and some free movies for y’all. If you get to the kiosk, you’ll tell other people about them and the circle continues.
Well then, good for you Steve. My only complaint with you then is why did you use Michael’s “Inside” for your site name. It certainly makes your site seem connected or piggybacking off Michael’s recognized site since his is named ‘inside’redbox, and you named yours ‘inside’blockbusterexpress. I thought there was a law against doing that as it makes people who recognize/familiar with and approve of one site/business/corp, whatever assume that the similarly named site/business/corp, etc are connected and, therefore, easily approved / trusted/used by these people. Using a similar name becomes like built in advertisement/trust. Anyways, why then when I type ‘insideblockbuster’ on google, you get to a site from 2007, and if you then click on the ‘insideblockbuster’ header in the address bar, it brings you back to this site: insideredbox?
I didn’t know that inside or insider was a trade mark? Any body can use it for now
Tuna, all I know is that when I type in ‘insideblockbuster.com’ in my google bar and I then click ‘search’ and then click into the second story down ‘welcome to Insideblockbuster…’, I get a Insideblockbuster site that was created in 2007 AND it says on it that IT IS PART OF Insideredbox !!! And to prove that, if you then click the Insideblockbuster header, it takes you to this site: Insideredbox. Therefore, IF Insideblockbuster was created in 2007 BY Michae (I’m assuming)l, and now Steve comes along and calls his site basically Insideblockbusterexpress-which he says is not affiliated with insideredbox or insideblockbuster site in any way– then there seems a potential problem to me with his VERY similiar name choice for his web site….Just sayin’…
Ahh,..Michael, Steve,… Suspense is my favorite movie genre, but maybe you two just want to clear this all up for us :-)
OK i am just saying there is an Inside dvd play also and they give free codes for dvd play kiosk , its all about free codes on these wed sites i visit so lets not beat up on the guy Peace out
Hey RB, I would assume that the situation is that Michael, like myself, owns several different domains relating to the industry. And like what I’ve done, they point back to the main hub of where the info is. Within the Blockbuster Express side, I have 10-12 different domains that point there. But the ‘inside’ one really stood out as the best name to use for promoting inside info. So for the same reason that Michael chose it for Redbox, I chose if for Blockbuster Express.
I also own several other ‘inside’ domains that relate to completely separate industries. I haven’t launched any sites there yet as keeping one up is hard enough ;-). But the reality is that we both benefit from the common use of a common word. People who find one site will have a tendency to find the other site.
Its the same thing with my relationship with Blockbuster Express. I promote their Facebook and Twitter feeds because it causes people to know more about the company and in turn, they go searching for promo codes or inside info and get to me. We both benefit from that and alls well.
At this point, the only time I have communicated with Michael at all is when I mailed him some photos of the DVD cases used in the NCR kiosks that he wrote an article about one day. Since then, that kiosk is what became deployed as Blockbuster Express.
Hey RB, one other thing I was just thinking. You’ll notice I never have put the URL to my site in a comment. I am not here promoting my site. I got to this post because it showed a blip on my site Analytics that I was getting some referrals from this page. So I came to see what was up.
i think the other site that he runs is inside DVDplay
That is correct. But since DVD Play was acquired by NCR he’s redirected that back here now. He also had a few others that I know of but never actually launched sites on them. For example, InsideMovieCube. But MovieCube (The New Release) was acquired by NCR and then rebranded as Blockbuster Express.
I still fail to see the urgency of these retailers chasing video onto the web. Silly imo. Everyone will play around with a channel renting and selling the same movies on internet devices but the bottom line is that there will be no bottom line for most. Best buy and others will pull back after little traction and modest losses a la Vongo.
If I had one of these devices, I would probably go for it. Convenience is a big thing in today’s market. Best Buy is a great retailer, I have purchased lots of things from them and know family members in the business. If I was going to pick a streaming service to trust, I would pick this one.
The buttons on this device will be netflix, amazon, blockbuster, wal-mart, blue sky, cinema now (which I think will be the same technology behind blockbuster & blue sky) and a few other options. All except for netflix will rent and sell the same movies for about the same price. I’d have to guess blue sky will garner the least amount of interest from consumers.
Yeah it’s possible, I was referring to just me. If it came down to it though, it would just be who has something for the cheapest. Quality across the board is gonna be the same assuming that the variable of connection speed is decent. Why would anybody pay more for the same thing? is basically what I mean.
Sigh. Like we really need another download portal. There’s already itunes, PSN, Zune, Vudu, Cinemanow, blockbuster’s service and probably a few others I haven’t mentioned… not to mention the streaming services like netflix. And there’s no device that can use them all.
Personally I don’t care who has videos on line to rent. I will not pay $3.99 for a rental. I have been using red box for over a year and have only paid to watch one movie so why would I pay someone else $3.99. If red box stops giving out free codes I’ll just stop renting movies. If everyone did the same you wouldn’t even see a rental for $3.99 but people are will pay anything and these companies know it. People are so stupid, companies know it and will use it. I don’t know anything about this Blockbuster Express. Haven’t even seen a machine from Blockbuster to rent moves. They must be hiding them.
‘I have been using red box for over a year and have only paid to watch one movie…’
‘If red box stops giving out free codes I’ll just stop renting movies.’
More power to you but you got to admit that losing your business and others like you really won’t hurt redbox much. The codes contribute to cheap customer acquisition costs which is why they exist.
Just wondering though how some complain about lack of codes while you haven’t paid in a year. How do you get a better deal than others?
Because the kiosks are co-located with another business, they have to reach an agreement with some business to put them there. That process is rolling out slowly but surely across the country. I think they were at 5,400 kiosks last time I was able to get a number.
You people that leech off of the codes piss me off. The codes are ok sometimes, but you cheap asses can pay $1 for a great service that doesn’t chain you to Blockbuster every once in a while. Bragging that you’re essentially a selfish leech is, believe it or not, pretty stupid. And of course, these are the same people that are up in arms about the idea of $2 for a movie instead of $1. Bums.